screenGRAB Issue 2

Hello and welcome to issue 2 of screenGRAB: Edinburgh Screenworks’ new, monthly e-magazine profiling Scotland’s creative industries.

With blockbuster season now well underway, screenGRAB resident scribbler, John Gibb, explores the power of the corporate screen machine over British cinemas. Laura Jones takes another look at the continuing downloading debate and Orla Murray champions the overlooked Undertow, a gay romance, ghost story in which love transcends death. All this and more in Issue 2.

screenGRAB Team
Editors: Laura Witz, Paul Ryan. Design: Debra Clark. Writers: John Gibb, Claire Charras, Laura Jones, Struan Robertson, Orla Murray.

Screen Machines

It’s that time of the year again: when a small number of big films will take over the screens at your local multiplex. As the Blockbuster  machine rolls into town, John Gibb asks what price we pay for such corporate domination of our cinemas.

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Digital Downloads

In response to this year’s Digital Economy Act, there has been a wealth of criticism and little alteration in the numbers illegally downloading. Laura Jones investigates and asks whether it is time that the industry adopted a different approach.

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New Talent Profile – Stewart Comrie

Stewart Comrie is an animator, director, writer and producer; his stop motion animation film, Battenberg won Best Animation at the 2010 Bafta New Talent Awards and he was selected as a Trailblazer at this year’s Edinburgh Film Festival where his film received its world premiere.

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Time Lord, Timeless?

The latest series of Doctor Who saw yet another new Doctor achieve success in the role. But what is it about Doctor Who that renders it so flexible, so successful with each different actor and writer? John Gibb explores the continued success of the phenomenon.

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Tweet, twit, twitter, twittered…

Some people can’t stop tweeting, they are addicted; but those who’ve never been on can’t understand why. Read about Claire Charras’ first experience of the world of Twitter as she read everything from BBC News to Paris Hilton news.

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Stage to Screen

City Screen/Picturehouse and Traverse Theatre have recently signed a deal to do a live broadcast of script readings to cinemas around the UK. The one-off event will transmit five newly commissioned plays by leading playwrights and take place during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

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Classic Review: The Thing

Struan Robertson brings us another review of a negotiable classic. Originally a box-office flop, Struan tells us why The Thing has become a classic in its own right, and investigates the relative merits of special effects and CGI.

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Review: Undertow

Undertow, Juan Fuentes-León’s debut feature was Orla Murray’s highlight of this year’s 64th Edinburgh International Film Festival. As a gay-romance ghost story, this is not necessarily a genre you have seen before, but this sad and sometimes shocking film will certainly be one to remember.

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